


Hey There, Darlin'

by buoyantsaturn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, M/M, Post-The Heroes of Olympus, Pre-The Trials of Apollo, Southern Will Solace, everything is the same except will is the epitome of southern and they dont meet until now, thats literally it thats the whole fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 16:17:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12634662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: Will was pretty, and Nico was angry about it. He knew he shouldn’t have come here. He knew he should’ve just gone back to his cabin and stayed there until breakfast the next day, but no. He saw a cute boy and had to go after him. Of course he did. And then Will had to act like Nico was some kind of savior during the wars, and he smiled at him. That smile alone was enough to make Nico realize that this trip was a mistake.or: what happens when I clean out my drafts after a year





	Hey There, Darlin'

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer im not southern and i based all of this off a list of headcanons i saw once like a year ago thats how long this has been in my drafts  
> in case anyone wants to know i started this on sept 3 2016 and it was last edited in march 2017 and im posting it as is so hope its good enjoy

After the war with Gaea, Jason had been the one to convince Nico to stay at camp. He’d tried to fight it for a while, but eventually gave in at the thought of having a warm place to sleep every night. 

So he stayed, and he kept mostly to himself. He ate during meal times, and he trained by himself in the arena, and he slept. He slept a lot, hoping that plenty of rest was all he needed to counter the whole fingers-dissolving-in-sunlight thing. So far, it wasn’t working.

Things at camp went on as normal, or so he heard from Jason and Piper, not that they’d ever experienced the camp at  _ normal. _ People did their scheduled activities, and the last of the injured from the war were finally healed. Everything was fine, until it wasn’t.

Something happened in the woods. No one was quite sure what it was, but most suspected that it was a  _ farewell  _ prank from Travis Stoll, which ended with more injuries during a capture the flag game than there had ever been.

The game had ended with the explosion, leaving a winner undeclared as injured campers were rushed to the infirmary. Somehow, in the chaos, a meeting of head counselors was called, so Nico had made his way toward the Big House (just because he was the only Hades camper didn’t mean he wasn’t still head of his cabin).

Nico sat back in the corner of the room, sleeves of his sweatshirt pulled down over his fingers to hide their translucence. He was doing his best to ignore the shouting match going on between every other head counselor, but snapped his head up when a new voice jumped in.

A blond boy stood up, hands slamming down on the table. The first thing Nico noticed about him was the fact that he was wearing a sweater when it was almost seventy degrees outside, and the second was  _ freckles, _ _ everywhere. _

“Y’all’ve made two big mistakes in the last two hours,” he shouted, eyes flicking from person to person as he spoke, but still managed to skip over Nico. “The first, letting that explosion happen in the woods and then accusing each other instead of trying to figure out what  _ actually happened. _ The second, keeping me  _ here _ when there are over thirty injured campers that need me in the infirmary. Y’all can figure this out for yourselves.”

He shoved his chair back from the table and left, stopping only to nod at Chiron and mutter, “Sorry for the outburst, sir,” before he was gone, door slamming shut behind him.

The meeting was much quieter after that. Conversation was civil, and people got up to leave after about ten minutes. Nico waited until the room was almost completely cleared out before he left, heading in the direction of the infirmary instead of his own cabin, and hesitated before walking inside.

He nearly walked right into the boy with all the freckles as soon as he was inside. Freckles had just walked out of a supply closet with his arms full of bandages, which he dropped all over the floor when he jumped at the shock of seeing a non-injured person entering the infirmary.

“Sorry,” Nico said, dropping down to help pick up the bandages.

“You’re Nico, right?” Freckles asked, kneeling down across from Nico but not touching the abandoned bandages. “Son of Hades? Basically the reason we’re all alive after two wars?”

Nico flinched back. “I...guess?”

“I’m Will,” he said, smiling brightly at Nico. “Let me take those from you.” He pulled the bandages out of Nico’s hands, but froze once he got a look at Nico’s skin. The bandages were abandoned again. “What’s wrong with your hands?”

“I don’t know,” Nico told him, trying to pull his hand back, only for Will to tighten his grip and inspect Nico’s fingers more closely. “It’s been like that since the end of the war.”

“The end of the war?” Will repeated, meeting Nico’s eyes with a shocked expression. “That was  _ weeks _ ago.” He rose to his feet, pulling Nico with him. “Find an empty bed and wait there. I’m gonna do a few quick things, and then I wanna figure this out.”

Will crouched down to collect the bandages once more, as Nico said, “But I came here to help.”

Will gave him a blank look. “Hun. Can you heal people? Can you do anything that won’t make your weird skin thing worse? Find a bed, and wait for me.”

Nico frowned. “Fine.”

 

Will was pretty, and Nico was angry about it. He knew he shouldn’t have come here. He knew he should’ve just gone back to his cabin and stayed there until breakfast the next day, but  _ no. _ He saw a cute boy and had to go after him.  _ Of course _ he did. And then Will had to act like Nico was some kind of savior during the wars, and he  _ smiled _ at him. That smile alone was enough to make Nico realize that this trip was a mistake.

But here he was anyway, laying down on a spare cot with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled as far over his face as it would stretch. 

He was expecting to he abandoned there for a few hours, but Will found him less than ten minutes later, dropping down onto the foot of the cot. Nico sat up straighter, pushing his hood off his head and looking up at Will - who, for some reason, had a dumb, wide-eyed look on his face (that Nico shouldn’t have found  _ cute) _ and seemed like he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure how to word it. Which probably meant that Nico’s hair was sticking up because of the hood or something stupid, so he chose to pretend that nothing was wrong.

Will cleared his throat, looking down at the first aid kit in his hands - like anything in there would do any good for Nico - and said, “The end of the war, right? That’s what you said?”

“Maybe a little before the end,” Nico corrected his previous statement. 

Will shot him a Look. “How little before the end?”

“A few days?” Nico said softly. “I’m not sure exactly. You’d have to ask Reyna.”

“Well I would, if she wasn’t back in New Rome already,” Will told him. “What have you done to try to fix this?” Nico shrugged. “I’ll need a better answer than that.”

“Sleep,” Nico started. “I’ve been trying to eat more but any time I try to pick up a fork or an apple I either drop it or I can’t feel what I’m doing, and then I kinda lose my appetite.”

“Anything else?” Will asked. “Nectar, or anything?”

“I think Reyna used unicorn draught,” Nico told him. “That seemed to work better than Nectar.”

“Well, lucky for you, the Romans gave us some of their supply before they left,” Will said, rising off the cot and taking a step back. “I’ll be right back with it.”

Nico’s eyes followed will as he walked into a supply closet, almost immediately emerging with a small bowl and a bottle that Nico recognized as a common item around New Rome.

“Normally, I’d have you drink this, which you’ll still do, just a sip,” Will started, setting down the bowl. “But you’re also gonna soak your hands in it, and maybe that’ll help it work faster.” He poured the draught into the bowl before handing Nico the bottle, instructing him to take a sip, then took it back. “And while you’re soaking your hands, you’re gonna tell me all the reasons why you thought it was a good idea to wait so long to come talk to me about this.”

Nico didn’t move, staring at Will like he’d grown a second head. Nobody ever wanted to  _ talk  _ to him, what was Will thinking?

“Well?” Will asked, nodding to the bowl. “Let’s get started, now.”

None of Nico’s excuses were good enough, of course, because he didn’t really have any to begin with. Sleeping was probably the best one he had - practically the  _ only _ one he had - but Will still denied its validity. 

After a lull in the conversation, Will said, “You should come to the campfire with me tonight.”

Nico nearly flinched back. “Why?” he asked, not quite recognizing the vaguely hurt expression on Will’s face. “Are you trying to be my friend or something?”

“Or somethin’,” Will answered with a half-hearted shrug. He looked down at his hands and started picking at his nails. “I was sorta hopin’ it could be more like a date?”

“A date?” Nico repeated, voice soft, so surprised he sounded almost in awe. “You want to date me? Why would you want to go on a date with  _ me?” _

Will huffed, looking up at Nico with a smile that seemed a little forced. “Because I think you’re  _ cute, _ darlin’, that’s why.”

“I’m cute?” Nico whispered. He focused his gaze on the bowl of unicorn draught instead of looking into the bluest eyes in the world - they were  _ distracting, _ gods! “I don’t know--”

Will set a hand on Nico’s knee. “How ‘bout this: if you take your hands outta that bowl right now and you’re all healed, then you’ll come with me. If not, you don’t have to, but you do gotta hang around here so I can try to fix it.” He paused for a beat. “And, of course, to convince you to go on a date with me.”

“Right now?” Nico asked, nodding toward the bowl.

“Right now.” Will reached forward, taking Nico’s wrists in his hands and lifting them out of the bowl, eying smooth, pale skin that didn’t appear to be transparent in any way. Will held on to one of Nico’s hands, pinching carefully at the tips of Nico’s fingers on one hand, and then the other, gaging Nico’s eyes for a reaction. “Feel that?” Nico nodded, and Will’s smile glowed as bright as the sun.  _ Beautiful. _ “Good. That means I’ll see you tonight. Don’t try to ghost yourself away, either. No ghostie powers for two weeks, so we can make sure this doesn’t happen again. Am I clear, darlin’?”

Nico could feel his cheeks heating up. He didn’t trust himself to speak, so he simply nodded.

Will let go of Nico’s hands, picking up the bowl and the bottle of draught before standing up. “I’ll see you at the campfire, then, darlin’. I can’t wait.” And then he  _ winked. _

Nico’s heart stopped. Was that good enough reason to stay in the infirmary a little longer?

**Author's Note:**

> also ive been up since 6 this morning and im real tired but wanted to get this posted so sorry if theres typos or anything or if it fricken just didnt make sense or the pacing is weird like i proofread but didnt edit so i hope it was decent   
> thanks for reading!!  
> any actual southerners with feedback hit me up let me know if will was accurate thanks


End file.
